Hi,
 
I have a project that I've been working on, off and on, for a couple years now. I'm using Platinum, and it's a mixture of about 50 tracks, with a mix of audio and plugin based tracks. Up until a couple months ago, everything was fine. But now whenever I play back, certain midi notes are skipped, i.e. not played. I eventually figured out if I disable the plugins (hit the FX button), all the notes play. But if I export the audio, everything is there as it should be. I have a reasonably powerful 8-core, 16GB ram machine (I've managed projects more than 100 tracks). The CPU and ram meters never get really high - in fact they've gotten a lot higher in the past than what they are now. It even does it if I solo a single track.
 
I've messed with the Playback and Recording settings (multiprocessing engine, plugin load balancing, share drivers with other programs, MMCSS, etc...) and nothing seems to make a difference.
 
My audio interface is a pair of Focusrite Saffire Pro40s, running in ASIO mode, AMD FX8150, 16GB ram, SSD boot drive, 7200rpm Audio drive.
 
One thing to note, this seems to be the only project I'm having problems with.

Increase the number of MIDI buffers in Edit > Preferences > MIDI > Playback and Recording > Playback. However I don't believe that "more is always better." Increase it by 50% and see if that makes a difference. If not, double it. If not, then it's probably something else.

The solution to this used to be ... increase the "MIDI prepare using" parameter from the default 250 to 500 or more.
Has the preferred solution changed ?

microapp
The solution to this used to be ... increase the "MIDI prepare using" parameter from the default 250 to 500 or more.
Has the preferred solution changed ?

Same solution, if you follow the file path I mentioned it takes you to the MIDI buffer setting. I have mine set to 1500.

Hi Guys,
I'm having the same problem and, like the OP, it's only on one particular project.  I guess I'm curious if there's a reason that it happens on this project and not others.  Thoughts?

jeebustrain
I eventually figured out if I disable the plugins (hit the FX button), all the notes play. But if I export the audio, everything is there as it should be.

Using plugins that require significant delay compensation (e.g. Linear Phase EQ and Compressor) will necessitate an increase in the MIDI Prepare Using buffer as suggested, but it generally only affects real-time playback, so what you're seeing is expected. The default value for the Prepare Using buffer was lowered form 500ms to 250 when X1 was introduced, but most systems still work better with the old default, so I would start at 500 and increase as necessary.

Thanks Craig - I upped the buffer setting from 64 to 128 (after stepping through 96) and it didn't make a difference.
 
However, I went in and upped the "prepare using" parameter from 125 to 250, then 500... It sounds A LOT better now. Thanks guys!
 
 

Hmm...well almost. Now I have some really bad lag. I assume it's because of the "prepare using" setting. I dropped it back down to 250, but am now seeing the dropouts again.
 
Craig - when you have yours set that high - do your virtual instruments play back in real time or do they lag?

They don't lag. Latency doesn't occur from the MIDI buffering, it's an audio issue. Perhaps in your quest to fix the problem by adjusting latency and such your settings are not optimal for audio any more. A MIDI buffer of 250 is not enough based on my experience. I think you'd need at least 500-1000.
 
I'd advise setting a buffer size of 1000. Restart. Open SONAR, and then Adjust audio settings for minimal latency.

I gathered form the original post that there are plugins in the project inducing Plugin Delay Compensation. This would cause latency when trying to record more tracks, but wouldn't be noticeable on playback, unless the OP means existing tracks are out of sync...?.